6 More of the Best and Worst Male Superhero Halloween Costumes

I love Halloween! It’s my favorite holiday of the year! I love the pageantry, I love the costumes, I love the very idea that children walk the neighborhood collecting candy from friendly neighbors. Is there any more deliciously elaborate holiday? And who doesn’t love candy?

In the spirit of the holiday, I’m going to carry on my tradition of critiquing the best and worst superhero-themed Halloween costumes! Last year it was the women, and now we’re back to more male superhero costumes!

All of these costumes were found for sale on various Halloween costume websites. I tried not to repeat any costumes from the last list I did of male costumes. It helps that a ton of new superhero movies have come out since then! I don’t have any kind of official grading system. This list is based on what looks good, what looks accurate, as well as a few personal preferences. The point is to have the best damn Halloween costume possible!

Join me after the jump for the six best and six worst male superhero costumes this year!

Best

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6. Ant-Man

If I was a more slender man, this would be my Halloween costume this year! I loved the Ant-Man movie, and his costume is one of my all-time favorite live action superhero costumes. It just looks great! And this Halloween version, while a little flawed, gets more right than it gets wrong. The smock is highly detailed and colorful, getting the red/black dynamic just right, with a lot of the mechanical details. I hate costumes that don’t have gloves, but I’m going to pass on this one, because that helmet ties it all together! From what I can tell, that’s not just some plastic face cover. It looks like a real, plastic helmet that actually looks like Ant-Man. The helmet was the one thing this costume had to get perfect, and I think they did a stellar job.

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5. Arrow

This is one damn good costume, and accurate too! Based on the TV show Arrow, this costume has the look and the feel of Oliver Queen’s vigilante guise. Granted, it does look a little on the cheap side, but the accuracy wins out! We’ve got the green leather, the green hood, and I don’t know if the costume comes with the boots and gloves, but they definitely complete the ensemble! With a bit of polish, this could be a legitimate cosplay outfit. And one hopes that the bow and arrows come included. Though if I were wearing this costume, I’d buy a Nerf bow and arrow and paint them green.

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4. Arkham Knight

This costume wins based on the helmet alone! Look at that thing! It’s a full-head helmet, and looks like the most badass Batman helmet of all time! It’s sleek, it’s deadly and it’s all Batman. The rest of the costume looks damn good as well. It looks like a wicked leather chest armor, with a belt that’s more than just painted on. Granted, the pants appear to be just regular jeans, but so what? We’ve all got a dark pair of jeans in our closets, right? Adding a pair of comfy jeans only improves the costume over whatever faux material pants it might have offered. Of course, few people are probably going to recognize who you are if you go as the Arkham Knight, but that helmet could last you for a million years of cool Batman costumes!

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3. Arkham Robin

Speaking of the Arkham games, costume makers clearly went all out with this amazing Robin costume! Holy wowzers! Not only does it just look badass, but it’s got the hood, the two-toned cape, and an awesome looking mask! The material looks tougher than smock plastic, and the design is all around amazing. Granted, it’s missing gloves and seems to have those silly boot covers, but those are easy fixes when you’ve got a costume this radical. Robin has had some pretty lousy costumes over the years, but this is definitely the one to own!

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2. Riddler

Who knew costumes could be this classy? This simple Riddler costume is just dashingly perfect. It’s got the simple coat, the funny tie, the hat, the mask, the cane; it’s a full costume with the perfect amount of dangerous class. Granted, the suit jacket isn’t a real suit jacket, but it looks the part! And for once, the lack of gloves works with the costume. You’re not supposed to wear gloves for this one! I’m mostly just surprised that this counts as a Halloween costume. I applaud the artistic effort instead of just making a cheesy Jim Carrey version.

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1. Rocket Raccoon

I was ready to write this costume off as silly, but then I got a closer look at what was being offered. The bare hands and boots obviously clash, but look at the fur on the arms and legs! They didn’t just paint fur onto a plastic smock! They made real furry arms and legs, and a tail! Then you’ve got the jumpsuit, which looks fine, and a real mask with real raccoon features! Somebody went all out in designing this costume, and it shows. Part of me was worried that it was a little too silly, but then I remembered that this is Halloween we’re talking about here! Any adult male dressing up as Rocket Raccoon for Halloween is supposed to look silly, and this costume combines silliness with style and accuracy! It’s perfect! Plus, furry gloves shouldn’t be too hard to come by, right?

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Worst

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6. Vision

There is a big difference between the Ant-Man mask and this Vision mask, and the difference is kind of scary. Look at that face! It’s terrifying! The dead, empty eyes, the hideous nose, the flat, emotionless mouth; why wouldn’t you just paint your face? Coupled with the garishly ugly muscle smock, the Vision might be the worst Avenger to go as for Halloween. Though the cape and the boots look pretty slick.

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5. TV Flash

Here is a solid example of trying too hard. There are already some great Flash costumes available, but this one fails because it tries too hard to look like The Flash TV show. Not only does the muscle suit look out of place, but the costume is covered in weird, discolored sections that are a darker red than the rest. I know the TV costume is dark red, but they failed to match the look, and instead you’ve got some weird clashing colors in this costume. The mask looks pretty near perfect, but those boots are another slight against nature. This costume is way too complicated for what it’s trying to achieve.

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4. Ultron

This is just kind of embarrassing. Woe be to anyone desperate enough to be Ultron on Halloween. The movie was good, sure, but nobody can have loved it this much. This costume is the worst of the worst. It’s just complicated, mindless electronics painted onto a full body smock. And the mask appears to just be a cheap plastic face-cover. There’s probably a thin elastic string around the back. I hate that! If you’re so desperate to go as Ultron for Halloween, but not good enough to make a full metal costume on your own, why bother? Go as Loki or Iron Man.

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3. Arkham Batman

Talk about embarrassing. This is the Batman costume from the Arkham games, and as you can see, it’s clearly a step down from both Robin and the Arkham Knight. How did that happen? You’ve got the embarrassingly short cape, the painted-on utility belt, the silly lack of anything covering the neck, and an overall design that just looks too busy. I know the New 52 really upped Batman’s random lines, but this costume goes overboard. Just look at those legs, all segmented and glitzed up. In the games, the Arkham costumes are the height of Batman badassery. In real life, printed on a smock, this just looks sad. This looks like a job for Robin.

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2. Hawkeye

OK, wow. What the heck were people thinking?! I know Hawkeye was the heart and soul of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, but did they really need a Hawkeye costume this badly? It’s just a dude wearing a black and purple jumpsuit! And while that might be movie accurate, this looks ridiculous and uncomfortable! They didn’t even give him a bow and arrow! Come on! That’s an amateur mistake. Green Arrow got a bow, but Hawkeye doesn’t get the very accessory that makes him special. The stylized duster does not make the Hawkeye.

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1. Groot

This…this isn’t even trying. This is an embarrassment. I get that a Groot costume is probably hard to make, but jeez louise! This costume is so terrible that the designers didn’t even bother to make pants. They just stopped, probably threw up their hands and then drank themselves into oblivion. And the mask doesn’t even look like Groot. It doesn’t look like anything. Honestly, the brown, the smeary design…I don’t really want to say what this costume looks like. But it’s definitely not Groot. It’s not even the unlicensed knockoff version of Groot. This is garbage. I hope somebody got fired over this.

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About Sean Ian Mills

Hello, this is Sean, the Henchman-4-Hire! By day I am a mild-mannered newspaper reporter in Central New York, and by the rest of the day I'm a pretty big geek when it comes to video games, comic books, movies, cartoons and more.